Having recently encountered this scam and not been able to find information about it easily I thought I’d blog it and put it all in one place.
- What is the Ebay Nigeria Scam?
- The scammers will have newly registered IDs (quite often registered that very day) with fake addresses in various countries including the Netherlands and the UK but they actually live in Nigeria. They persuade the seller to send the goods on receipt of a fake payment confirmation email, eg. from Paypal, Nochex, banks, Bidpay (which in reality no longer exists) or other payment services. Or just by promising payment. The seller sends the item to Nigeria but the promised postal/money order or payment never materialises. They target new sellers of relatively expensive items, especially mobile phones and other electronic goods.
- How to deal with them?
- eBay are usually quick to suspend these scammers.
- Go to: http://pages.ebay.co.uk/help/contact_us/_base/index.html and select: Problems with other members > Continue > Fraud concerns for sellers > Buyer paid/attempted to pay with fake/stolen funds > Continue > Email Us. Also I mentioned in this message that it was a classic Nigeria Scam.
- Go to: http://pages.ebay.co.uk/help/policies/identity-false.html and report them for having a fake address. I also added that it was a Nigerian scam.
- What next?
- I got a few emails from eBay saying they were looking into the problem. Then approx 2 days later I received confirmation that the scammer had had their account disabled.
Once the account is disabled you can file for your final value fees back: http://feedback.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?CreateDispute
Then you can go and relist your item. - To prevent it happening again.
-
- Block bidders with no credit card on file - the last option on here:
http://offer.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?BuyerBlockPreferences
Blocking those with zero feedback should be sufficient as the scammers will be newly registered (often the same day they bid) with no feedback and of course no card on file. Blocking bidders with low feedback but no credit card may prevent some genuine new bidders but choose what you’re comfortable with. You can also list to sell in the UK only and use another option on the above link to block bidders from outside the UK (although don’t rely on that one, some of these scammers register fake addresses in the UK to get around the block). - If you prefer Paypal anyway you can also use Immediate (Paypal) Payment on your listing, then the listing cannot end without payment being made:
http://pages.ebay.co.uk/help/sell/immediatepayment.html
To do that, during the listing process select to sell Fixed Price Only (or Buy It Now and auction but then you must use a reserve to keep the BIN and Immediate Payment if a bid is placed.) and you’ll see the link to use Immediate Payment on the payment page, just below the Paypal logo. - But please also be aware of credit card scams, usually (but not only) from Singapore, Indonesia and Malaysia, where they pay using Paypal but use stolen or fake credit cards so the money is withdrawn by Paypal later. Do not accept Paypal payment for expensive items from these and other scam areas. If necessary issue a refund and report fake funds to eBay as above.
If in doubt about a buyer please ask for advice on one of the Community boards.
- Block bidders with no credit card on file - the last option on here:
Most of this information came from a post on the Ebay forums by Peaseblossom. Just doing my bit to make the information easier to find.
Hi
I will like to ship phone to me,in care of Mrs Lucy Iloha.Below is the address.
NATIONAL ORTHOPAEDIC HOSPITAL,
P.M.B 3087 DALA,
KANO;KANO STATE,
NIGERIA 23464.
Hi,
I’ve had this scam this week. I got worried about it and emailed them politely saying that as I have a few concerns and because I listed UK only I would not be going through with the sale. I then had 2 emails whcih were quite convincing from ebay saying that my account had been suspended etc… it was similar to a scam a few years back but the email contained the details of the sale saying that if I did not post the item within 24hours my account would be permanently deleted and I would be banned from holding future accounts. This was a load of rubbush because it was only 48 hours after the sale and you would expect a little longer to get postage to nigeria!!
They also forgot to send me the fake payment email! duh! Im considering sending some of my dogs finest. Thanks for the inspiration!
Hi,
I just fell victim to this scam this week, being relatively green to the whole ebay experience, i had no idea this was going on. The person didnt bid on my mobile phone, he just emailed me and offered me the price i was asking to buy it now plus postage because he wanted it snt to his son living in Nigeria. I went as far as sending the item and providing him with the tracking number for confirmation. Only realised it was a scam when i got a fake email from paypal saying the buyer had overpaid my account and now i need to send $350 by western union money transfer before i recieve payment for the phone. Luckily australia post intercepted the package before it was delivered otherwise i would have looked pretty stupid!!!
Lesson learnt
Just nearly got scammed but had heard about this on ebay. I was selling a mobile on gumtree and got lots of interest, mostly I realised from people wanting to send items to nigeria. One person I thought was genuine untill I received the email from Nochex online secure payments - musa4rever@hotmail.com on behalf of service@nochex.co.uk (track-online@accountant.com). I thought it was strange to have a hotmail address first. It has all the details and says the same about sending the item first.
Here is the persons name and address (though their name was Maria Wayne maria4wn@rocketmail.com) so anything you want to send can be sent to them in Nigeria, mail about report to police etc might do it.
Olawunmi Olaide
6 Isiba Street,Itire
Surulere
Lagos
23401
Yep they are good at the scams and now doing on Gumtree etc where you can’t get band.
Nigeria
There was one spelling mistake in the PayPal e-mail they sent me which tipped me off
That, and the fact that he was sending a woman’s ring to his gay missionary fiance in Nigeria (terrible English).
On further inspection, the PayPal was also from an email address that looked something like Services@somethingstupidlylongthatPayPalwouldntuse.com
Happy selling people!
Hi all. I recently tried selling my dad’s gold bracelet on eBay and I think that the high value of it attracted these scammers, like flies to sh*t.
Thankfully eBay were quick to send a ‘Suspicious Bidder Alert’ and I had no intention of sending the item (to Nigeria) until I had the money in my Paypal account and could then transfer it to my bank. Needless to say, the money never came, despite several emails from the buyer claiming that she had paid the full amount and covered the delivery costs.
I also got a couple of emails from ‘Paypal’, one looked very fake and the other was fairly convincing apart from the bad english used, and the fact that they were asking me to send the ‘Tracking Number’ to membersafety.centre@post.com
This is the address they wanted me to post to:
FELICIAL CHIGO
No 18 Zik avenue
Uwani Enugu
Enugu State
234042
Nigeria
hey everyone,
i almost got scammed from these ppl until i googled the nigerian address and a whole bunch of sites came up about these scams. I was selling and engagement ring and wedding band combo on kijijii. this person claimed that he wanted to buy the items for a birthday present for his grandaughter. The person wanted me to send it to somebody named “Jamiu Adegun” at the address ” 1 Isiba Street, Itire, Surulere Lagos, 23401 Nigeria. I thought it to be a little strange that somebody would offer me $300.00 more then i was asking for the ring set. I recieved an email from pay pal confirming that the money was in my account and it would be released as soon as i gave paypal my ups tracking number. thank you to everybody on these sites , you all saved me alot of agrivation and grief.
Have just been victim of this scam. But thanks to this website, I didn’t fall for it - many thanks.
A number of indications which aroused my suspicions:
1. Only just registered on ebay (but we all have to start somewhere)
2. Didn’t reply immediately (took 24 hours - unusual for an expensive item > £200, with lots of last minute activity)
3. Received fake email from PAYPAL - lots of indicators here, but you have to look carefully (not formatted in same way as normal PAYPAL emails, poor resolution of PAYPAL graphics, not all underlined, blue hyperlinks were true hyperlinks, poor grammar)
4. Money not in account when checked through PAYPAL - ALWAYS MAKE SURE YOU DO THIS
5. Winner deregistered immediately from EBAY
So please be careful.
Does anyone know where Ebay stands regarding contacting runner-up, and offering goods at last price before scammer intervened? I don’t want to go through the hassle of relisting and waiting another weeek.
Best regards, Dave